Lee Ranaldo, the guitarist and founder of Sonic Youth has released a semi-acoustic single for Spanish label Primavera Sound. The single is a really nice laid back affair featuring covers of Neil Young and Sandy Denny. Renaldo is a fan of both artists and in 2010 he told The Guardian how he fell in love with Fairport Convention and in particular Sandy Denny:
Who Knows Where the Time Goes? set me off on a search for all things Sandy. I spent the next couple of years finding out all I could about her, and listening to everything I could get my hands on – her studio albums, bootlegs, rarities – as well as pestering many collector friends to comb their archives for me. Full article
On Neil Young’s Revolution Blues (from On the Beach), a song inspired by Charles Manson, whom Young had met in his Topanga Canyon, Ranaldo takes the overall drive down a peg or two. The result is a that those lyrics are all the more noticeable and in your face:
Well, we live in a trailer at the edge of town
You never see us ’cause we don’t come around.We got twenty five rifles
just to keep the population down.
The Cover of Sandy Denny’s beautiful ‘Bushes And Briars’ (and not the traditional ballad for anyone wondering) which featured on her solo album Sandy is equally well done. Both originals had countrified leanings which was maybe more to do with the commercial direction of music at that time. If anything, Renaldo delivers more back to basics versions that make the songs really shine through, something IMHO Sandy achieved in her 1972 BBC radio session which featured on Boxful of Treasures.